Best method for removing paint in hard to reach places?

I'm cleaning the engine bay of my 62 Skylark. Lots of odd hard to reach places on the fire wall and inner fender junction. I'm not interested in removing the front clip. What do you recommend? I have used angle grinders with wire wheels, and sanding disk for most areas. I do have a 8 horsepower air compressor as well.

 

A scaler works well, hand held "speedblaster" is my go to 90% of the time

 

Harbor freight has them for cheap

 

I was thinking of both those, thanks man. The speed blaster do I need a special mask to avoid silicosis? I have a beard!

 

Oh, wait. That's for aliens and spiders...

 

I'm the wrong person to ask ha, I sand blast and paint with no protection,....so dont do what I do.
But yea a 3m n95 respirator would be a good idea

 

Thanks Hugger I was glad you would see this thread. You are always helpful.

 

I have handled some silicosis cases. Do not tempt fate. Use a mask certified for this purpose.

 

I agree Jim.

 

Dremal with a small wire wheel only lasts a minute but worth it.

 

Silicosis is only a potential hazard if you use sand for blasting. There is other media you can use such as glass beads, aluminum oxide, 'black beauty' coal slag, etc. Crushed glass is another enonomical choice.
I do a lot of sand blasting on my projects with sand. I do wear a supplied air respirator when I do so.
The EPA is really cracking down on the use of sand for blasting. I actually had a hard time buying sand for blasting, several local suppliers are either out of have limited stock left. Sandblasting businesses are feeling the hit too.
Fortunately, I do have a local supplier which offers an economical alternative to sand, called Jet-blast. It's a synthetic Olivine material (a mineral). About $9 for a 55 lb bag, it's only 2-$3 more than sand. I'll be trying this when my present sand supply runs out.
Here's the supplier here in eastern Pa:
https://www.escablast.com/blast-media/jet-mag/

If the paint in your engine compartment is in decent condition, you can just degrease and scuff it up with scotch brite. Minor surface rust can be treated with phosphoric acid. I prefer nice clean, blasted, virgin metal before painting on my projects, but sometimes the scotch brite/phosphoric acid treatment will suffice.

 

Thank you Walt.
I could just paint the hard to reach areas but for some reason I seem to be a bare metal guy. OCD is a bitch

 

Hugger
I used the speed blaster this weekend. Nice to use an economical tool that does its job. Thanks

 

Yea they work pretty well, I've got 3 of them, first two didn't last no time, 3rd one has been fine, probably picked up some moisture or something

 

Using black diamond coal slag.

 

hugger - what media do you use?

 

I usually use, BX30 it's a fine triple filtered sand, its getting harder to get tho, the black diamond would clog my blaster up

 

I typically use a lawn chair,youngest offspring with a paint scrapper and a box of Pop Tarts

 

I went at mine with a putty knife first to scrape away the gunk. Then stiff wire brush with purple power and scrubbed everything down really well. Then scuffed down with red scotch brite, reclean, wipe, prep all and paint. No, it wasn't a 100% perfect surface, but I have to think I got it pretty freakin clean.